Tag: learning
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It is with a fair amount of confidence that we can say that 2014 has started off extremely well and at an amazing pace!

Teachers and students have been right in the thick of the action with teaching and learning programs well and truly in full swing, as you would expect. For students involved in our BYOD iPad Program, that being all 620 students in years 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8, we have seen an amazing start to the year with iPad devices being showcased to facilitate and demonstrate teaching and learning programs and initiatives.

The use of mobile technology to cater for individual needs and to support student learning programs in place has certainly sparked creativity, innovation and a desire to showcase learning through the use of the iPad technology.

It has been also great to see students download and use the required iPad Applications to support their learning. As we have cut these down to 15 core applications from at least 60-70 in the past, it is vitally important that students in our Early Years, Middle Years and Support Centre sub schools have these applications. To access the 2014 iPad Application Lists, head to our shared “2014 eLearning Documentation” dropbox folder linked below.

Our Year 2 Teaching team have also taken their iPad App usage one step further and developed a new list of ‘must haves’ for their students. This is also located in their shared dropbox folder linked above.

Lastly, we have developed a set of classroom / learning iPad expectations for students in Prep – Yr 2 and 6 – 8. I have also added below our Yr 3 – 5 Classroom Laptop Use expectations also. Teachers are currently using these documents and referring to them constantly to ensure technology integration teaching and learning practices are the best that they can be!

If you have any questions about the above please do not hesitate to leave a comment or contact the College. 🙂

Firstly, thank you to those parents who turned out for last nights MLP12C BYOD Information Evening. We hope that what was presented clarified a few things for you and any questions that you may have had were answered.

Please find below the ‘Prezi’ presentation that was shown last night.

If you have any questions about the presentation, and or about anything relating to our BYOD Framework Models for 2014, please do not hesitate to contact the College.

Last Wednesday night we held an information session for all our current Prep students parents relating to our 1:1 Prep iPad Program. The reason for this session was to inform parents that the iPad devices that their child had been using for the last term were in fact going to start heading home at the beginning of term 3!

Throughout the second semester last year we trialled this within our 1:1 program to assist and foster greater learning opportunities outside of the college setting, and with great success.

As you will see in the embedded presentation below, the aim of taking the iPad devices home is:

To move learning beyond the 4 walls of the classroom

To engage parents and carers in their child’s learning via the MLP12C Prep Curriculum

For students to develop in their journeys at home via mobile technology use

Parents on the night were very supportive, as they have always been and are, and asked a multitude of questions in how the devices could be used and how they could become greater involved in their child’s learning.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be very much looking forward to seeing how the devices are being used at home. We’ll be wanting to see also just how the collaboration between college and home can assist learning through mobile technology use!

On the weekend the annual ICTEV (ICT in Education Victoria) 2013 Conference took place and two of our very own staff, Michelle in Yr 6 and Jess in Yr 3, presented on the wonderful things that we are doing within our 1:1 iPad Programs.

I have been fortunate enough to hear from several of the people that attended their session and they all had nothing but excellent things to say!

One of the highlights from the presentation that Michelle and Jess gave was a video they showed which had been created by one of Michelle’s fantastic year 6 students, Leah. The video, which is embedded below is an outstanding reason as to why our staff and students are leaders in technology use to support learning.

Leah created this digital story based on a narrative that she had written in class and as you can see, it is absolutely amazing! The creativity that she has displayed, especially seeing that the entire video was created on an iPad, is stunning.

If you ever needed evidence to prove that technology has a place in an educational setting to support teaching and learning, this is it.

Yesterday I was able to pull together some time to get about and about amongst our year 1 and year 6 classes to see our 1:1 iPad program in action.

Immediately it was evident that our students and staff have responded to the use of these devices extremely well when integrating them in to teaching and learning programs and support learning.

As these two cohorts are essentially new to 1:1 iPad use, although our year 1 students last year had 1:1 iPad access under a school owned model, I thought it important to touch base with teachers and students in a more informal setting via conducting my own little “learning walk” throughout these areas.

As i mentioned it was immediately evident that the devices were being utilised to support teaching and learning via the following;

Students were engaged and on task with their devices

Students were given space and responsibility to select how they were to demonstrate their learning. I.e. Choice of app’s and presentation methods.

Students were using their devices to reflect on their learning using applications such as Explain Everything and Educreations.

Staff were using the devices with both purpose to make the technology use meaningful and assisting not as an add on or extra.

Several students were choosing to show their understandings by NOT using their iPads. This falls directly under student choice which we feel is fantastic as kids are not solely relying on their devices to complete work and demonstrate learning outcomes.

Students being creative with their devices and moving away from using their iPads as a substitution method to show their work. I.e. Students using the Minecraft and Eden applications to show their understanding!

And lastly, classes throughout these cohorts having developed blogs, wiki’s and Google Sites to connect with students in an online setting to share,, connect, collaborate and discuss their happenings!

I have included just a few images of some things that I witnessed below to show you first hand what our teachers and students are up to! 🙂

This was another big week at Manor Lakes P-12 College as we had another two wonderful groups of people out visiting our College to discuss all things iPads, 1:1, BYOD and technology integration in general!

There’s certainly been little to no sign of visitors letting up coming to out College and that we feel is a great thing! Being able to share our ‘journey’ with other schools and colleges who are either thinking about, beginning to head down, or are well on their way to implementing 1:1 iPads makes for some very worthwhile professional discussions.

Phil, James and Pam from Weetangera Primary School in the ACT (A big trip down!), were visiting Victoria and a number of school in and around Melbourne to see high quality teaching and learning programs based upon 1:1 technology integration as well as iPads being used to compliment teaching and learning programs, but also as to wether or not these devices can promote student learning outcomes. When Phil asked the question if we feel that iPads have promoted student learning outcomes we feel, quite confidently, that the answer is yet. What our challenge is now is to collect concrete data to prove this claim.

… and found that effective use of iPads can lead to all of these outcomes.” (I&J Management Services, 2011).

Passion Project!

I’d like to thanks Phil, James and Pam for not only their visit but for also their willingness to discuss, ask and share professional practice. A very worthwhile visit i felt for both parties!

On Friday we were lucky enough, for a second time around, to have several staff from Footscray City PS come to our college. Jessie, Emily and Kirsten arrived to view our 1:1 iPad Programs and to witness how our staff utilise these devices to foster student learning outcomes. Like with Weetangera’s visit, this was yet another that i feel proved just as valuable for both parties involved. It’s great to be questioned by our visitors relating to our schools professional practices, mainly around Professional Learning and technology integration. Footscray City are well on their way towards the technology goals they are wanting to achieve and hearing what plans they have for the future, also just like Weetangera PS, i am sure both settings will very shortly become leaders in this area!

We’re always on the hunt for new and exciting applications to use as part of our iPad program.

We’re usually asked quite frequently also where do we find the applications we use? Well, my first response is just about always word of mouth. And that mouth more often than not coming form the students involved in our iPad programs yet also other educators out and about who come across excellent app’s that can be used for learning and teaching purposes.

This morning i came across this great blog post from Edudemic.com, an outstanding online resource for anything and everything education and also technology related.

As the title of the page states, there are 100 excellent applications for iOS devices, mainly ipads, that can be used with your students. App’s that foster creativity and creation as well as app’s that make simple, everyday tasks easier such as note taking and creating flashcards.

This list is well worth a look and tonight during our College’s iPad PLT, we will be investigating our own iPad Application lists to attempt to finalise for 2013!

Yesterday we had a great opportunity in taking our all Year 6 students to Sovereign Hill to see how mobile technology, and obviously in our case iPads, could be best utilised by students!

The idea for this came from having members of the Sovereign Hill education team visit our College early on in the term and discuss not only iPad use by students, but effective and transformative use. We wanted students to be creative and collaborative and demonstrate this via the work they were to complete. We wanted the ip[ads to be used as a tool to assist their learning but also be used in innovative ways to record and gain a greater understanding of what they were to be part of and see.

Stephanie and her team suggested we bring our year 6 students to Sovereign Hill to see how they themselves chose to use their devices to support and enhance their visit. The overall aims of the visit were:

To establish an understanding of how students with iPads would choose to use their devices while on excursion and to complete follow up tasks.

To develop our knowledge of iPad applications that are useful to students and teachers on excursion.

To create a bank of examples of effective use of iPads on excursion that can be used as exemplars for other teachers.

To understand how teachers and students are currently using iPads as educational tools so that our program and resource development can support these learners.

Eureka!

Prior to attending Sovereign Hill with the students, our Year 6 team leader, Michelle, and I visited and spent the day at Sovereign Hill to investigate and plan what we could have the students doing with their devices throughout the day. Of course, we wanted the kids to take ownership of this however we also so wanted some set tasks related to the displays and demonstrations available that were linked to those things, however offered students choice in how they were to present their work!

We felt that it would be a great idea to develop an eBook that we could share with all students to assist them through their visit. This eBook can be downloaded below in a PDF format. The teachers spent some time with the kids prior to the visit to ‘hook’ them in to the activities and tasks directed their way so that they had an understanding of what it was we were asking them to do.

The day involved the students being booked in to several of the many outstanding programs that Sov. Hill has to offer and it was this throughout the day that perhaps proved to be our downfall. The students had very little time to explore and go off on their own to use their devices as we would have liked, and what time they did have solo was spent either in the candy Store or the bakery! Cannot blame them for that!

Over the coming week students will be aiming to complete some of the tasks within the eBook and then share these with their teachers and others.

Thanks to Steph and her dedicated team for the opportunity. Thanks to the years teachers and supporting teachers taht attended and made the day as successful as it was!

Lastly, the students will be completing a survey set for them to determine how they felt their devices could have best assisted them in completing set tasks as well as documenting their day.

If you have any questions about what we were involved in, please leave a comment! Thank you!

Today we had a visit from a school that was quite different from those whom we normally have through our doors! A school that is tagged as being Very Remote within Outback Australia and due to the vast landscape of our country, and many isolated communities, you can see via the embedded image below just how remote the Kids and Staff from Alekarenge School are!

As part of a student expedition to Victoria, we were thrilled to have had the 16 students and 4 staff out for a morning for a visit and to buddy up with one of our year 6 classes to be involved in some iPad happenings. Alekarenge have their own iPad integration occurring with a large number of devices spread throughout the school of approximately 150 students and from all reports the kids just love using the technology.

It was amazing to see immediately the NT kids and their willingness to get involved and share stories of their journey down south! I did have to apologise to a few of them about the weather and it was close to 20 degrees colder!

After a short tour of the College we then ran a buddy type of activity involving some of our year 6 students and the Alekarenge kids to complete a very quick iPad Scavenger Hunt, which is available here to download: AlekarengeScavHunt.

The students were involved in taking photos of the College with the iPad Camera, using app’s such as Pic Collage, Popplet Lite, Bamboo Paper and even iDraft to record information, share knowledge, collaborate and create!

Soon enough i’ll place a bit of the Alekarenge kid’s work up here to share!

A huge thank you must go to the Alekarenge staff, especially Aleisha C, for organising the visit and going out of their busy schedule to swing by! It was a great morning and one i know our year 6 kids were, and will be, talking about long after!

The information below can be found on my personal blog however as this information relates strongly here also, thought it best to place it on both blogs! Enjoy!

Our playground for the day…

Last Friday our College had a Curriculum Day which gave staff throughout the school the opportunity to attend relevant Professional Learning. Several hot topics were listed for staff to focus on such as Differentiation, ADC (Australian Developmental Curriculum), Literacy and the National Curriculum, and of course, Learning with iPads, just to name a few.

Staff were given the opportunity to place their name under the relevant professional learning that they wanted to attend in a Google Doc, and the rest as they say, is history.

Being given the option to run a Curriculum Day event based on ICT and more specifically Mobile Technology (iPads), was fantastic. As we run 2 1:1 iPad Programs (prep and years 6 and 7), it gave teachers a chance to learn more about how iPads and Mobile Tech could be integrated in to teaching and learning programs. I had a number of specialist staff from the Phys Ed and Arts areas also attend and this was great as they could gain a greater understanding of how Mobile Tech could be utilised within their own specialist programs!

As we place such a large emphasis on engagement within teaching, i thought it imperative that i do not give a ‘stand and deliver’ type of scenario as that is simply not engaging, no matter how good your Keynote Presentation is!

So…

The day that i orgainsed ran in the following manner;

1. An iPad Amazing Race.

This involved staff being given an iPad with the selected year 6 and 7 applications, as well as a created eBook that I had produced in their iBooks library. This book outlined exactly what each staff member was to do for the morning and that being having staff visit and use Federation Square as the meeting point, as well as the surrounding landmarks and attractions, to complete a series of iPad based tasks using the app’s available to them! They were to do this in any order, individually, pairs or small groups, and aim to complete as many of the tasks set with the time that they had.

I have embedded all relevant documents below as well as the PDF File of the eBook.

3. More structured PL held at our IT Partners (Xcite Logic) Offices in Collingwood.

Anita L’Enfant, Xcite’s National Manager for Professional Learning, run my staff through effective iPad Use and showed them a number of applications that could be utilised within their teaching and learning programs. I have listed these applications below as well as a short piece about what they are and what they do. Thank you to Anita for running the afternoon’s session as it was great for my staff to have Professional Learning that was not ran by myself.

On reflection, and apart from the weather being terrible in the morning, and the iPads not have decent Wifi connectivity, i was very pleased with how the day ran. Feedback from staff was outstanding and i also need to thank them for their patience and participation throughout the day! One thing that I would liked to have altered was the activities within the morning ‘Amazing Race’ component. I would have liked these to not be as… one dimensional as they were, meaning i found them to be a little in the ‘substitution’ mould of things. Meaning, I would have liked a more creative element to them, to really showcase what the iPad can do. But alas, something for next time. I felt the lack of wifi hindered this also and although Federation Square has free Wifi, it’s not reliable for what i would have liked to do.

Working Hard!

Collaborating!

Below I have included some feedback from staff about the day which I was very happy to receive!

“Last Friday was really good. It was really worthwhile. I learnt how I could use some the apps in an engaging and practical way that then could be taken back into the classroom and be extended upon for learning. I enjoyed having the opportunity at Excite to explore Apps and work on our books. I liked the application of using it at Fed Square as that is an accessible venue for us to visit for excursions, particularly with years 9 and 10’s.”

“I thought that all of the planned activities were great. It gave me a chance to really think about how I can utilize ICT in a PE environment. Personally it gave me time to experiment with assistance the use of different Apps. I would feel more comfortable in using iPads in PE after being exposed to using an iPad and the various Apps.”

All in all I’d love to run a similar day again, perhaps a whole day of the mornings activities with more staff, with more of a creative and collaborative focus. As mentioned i hope that the staff who attended took some valuable things away for future use because as we know, PL that assists us in becoming better educators is PL worth attending!